tips for autism

1
tips for autism

• Professional learning for teams
• supporting students with
• Autism Spectrum Disorder

2
What is tips?

• ASD-specific professional development for teams
  of adult learners with?mixed educational and
  professional backgrounds which aims to
  develop?appropriate child-centred goals and
  interventions in home, community and education
  settings.

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tips for autism

• Professional learning for teams comprising
• Parent(s)
• Teacher(s) and aide(s)
• GSE/RTLB or other advisory role
• Other carers or support people
• 4 days (1 day per week x 4)
• 6 teams per workshop
• Co-facilitated by specialist (GSE/RTLB) and
  parent/teacher

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Background

• Developed in 2000 as a collaboration between
  parent and specialist
• Pilot by SES in 2001 (4 workshops)
• Further 7 workshops in 2002/3
• Total 47 teams and 231 people (average 5/team)
• Well received by participants (evaluations
  average over 4.5/5 over all workshops
• Content has evolved with input from participants
  and others

5
Who is it for?

• Criteria
• Students need to be aged between 5 and 12 years
  old
• Teams must have parent and school representation
  as a minimum
• Students do not need a formal diagnosis, but the
  team must be in agreement that an ASD-specific
  approach is appropriate.

6
What is tips

• Principles are
• Importance of strong teams
• Problem solving approach to challenges
• Evdence-based eclectic interventions
• Strengths-based
• Perspective of the child

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Strong teams

• common knowledge base,
• shared focus around the child,
• complementary skills,
• improving and reflecting on group process,
• building a cohesive group,

8
Problem solving approach

• Problem solving approach means
• Appropriate match of the intervention to the
  problem
• addressing adult behaviour as well as
  within-student variables such as motivation
• using assessment to develop and evaluate
  interventions and
• Building on strengths to improve outcomes

9
Eclectic interventions

• There is no no one successful intervention
• Evidence suggests that successful interventions
  have common elements, but there is no research to
  show which interventions are best suited to which
  student
• rather than any one approach or approaches,
  effective elements of a number of approaches are
  used depending on the child their strengths and
  their individual needs.

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Strengths-based

• Positive, strengths-based focus.
• Making assessments of what the child CAN do, and
  setting goals based on these skills, rather than
  focussing on what the child CANT do

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Perspective of the child

• the need for us to adapt to the world of the
  child, rather than making the child adapt to our
  world

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How is it organised?

• Sessions follow a pattern
• Chalk and talk identifying key information
• Group activity to focus on child strengths
  needs
• Demonstration of strategies (expert jigsaw)
• Group activity to apply strategies
• Each team activity includes
• Elements of co-operative learning
• Setting a goal for the child
• Group/team self-evaluation

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Course structure

• Course workbook
• Each session
• Pre-reading
• Team and group activities relating to your child
• Assessment and development of a learning profile
  for the child in each of the key areas
• Practical strategies and examples for each of the
  key areas
• Homework relating to the session
• Further readings and references.

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How does it work

• A theme for each session (half day)
• What is autism
• Elements of effective supports
• Communication strategies
• Socialisation strategies
• Cognition strategies
• Behaviour support
• Teams school-wide issues
• Developing a long-term plan

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Philosophy

• To make a world the child can live in - at the
  same time as we help them to live in our world.

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Philosophy

• Facilitators are not the experts
• No right way to do it
• Good solutions are individual and take into
  account child and family preferences
• Developing teams who support each other and are
  confident to assess, discuss and develop
  effective interventions